4 --.The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 12, 1996 Uitw Slidigan Dafig 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan RONNIE GLASSBERG Editor in Chief ADRIENNE JANNEY ZACHARY M. RAIMI Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily s editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. FROM THE DAILY Public choices Open searches benefit 'U' community "NOTABLE QUOTABLE, '1 think it will be fairly brief. It's pretty clear (Bollinger) wants the job.' - Regent Shirley McFee (R-Battle Creek), speaking of the Lee Bollingers contract signing with the University Board of Regents Yumi KUNIYUKI GROUND ZERO 3, EQ4tY*~ *4o. tJ~4~ .- 'a \ S. YOTs4 FtLE!rT Wt e /ou A iT M*4A A, a'HY yOU mog- r .1 -b ThT Fu-zDl 5W.C OOL E YT TO- TE EITO LETTERS To THE EDITOR GRAND ILLUSION God, Wlde and'i Woody Allen S unday was my birthday -as far as birthdays go, it was OK, I guess. The highlight was a card I got from a friend of mine who is in rabbinical school. I will call him Dreyfus, for the sake of anonymity (anonymity i4 important to him, although I am not exactly sure why = actually, Dreyfus sends me cards with differ- ent names every time, to ensure his anonymity fromr :Y me - I have already forgotten his real name). Dre fus was an T he University Board of Regents are views. This would have al trying to pass themselves off as inno- University community and the cent victims of Michigan's Open Meetings learn more about the candidates. Act. Last month, a local judge found a large for the presidency and their bac portion of the recent University presidential As it turned out, several addit search to be in violation of the act. views were unnecessary - futui However, the regents claimed that the court Bollinger had already been ma order - and the act itself - skewed the regents' favorite when the names result of the search, making it more difficult finalists were released. Some re to get to know the candidates. But the that Bollinger's University c regents are missing the point -holding the gave him an advantage, and tha final part of the search out in the open will was enhanced by the open meet positively reinforce the choice of former However, it is the responsib Law School Dean Lee Bollinger as James regents to hold meetings to get t Duderstadt's successor. other candidates at least as w The fact remains that OMA is the law - knew Bollinger. Closed meeti and the presidential search committee vio- have favored Bollinger in the lated it. Regents felt they could not talk open ones did - if his 21-year openly to the candidates about certain top- University favored him at all. ics, such as which University programs are The regents also have failed academically inferior or the role of the an open search will broaden the regents in the resination of ex-University the new president. The Universi president James Duderstadt. nity had the opportunity to a Their claims are invalid. The regents can about the candidates, and every( and should ask whatever they feel is neces- on how the interview processl sary during open candidate interviews. A Even if a constituency's first cho good candidate would not shy away from selected as president, at least an the tougher questions, nor would a good have a say in the process. I regent - both can be critical of the searches that were conducted be University. The University community does doors, portions of the communit not want a president who would not project been suspicious - and fel concrete opinions. The regents shouldn't because people did not have a shy away from them either - and it's their selection. This time around, th job to ask tough questions to choose the suspicion or feelings of ill will. best possible candidate. Bollinger is the regents' chc Moreover, if the regents are concerned 12th University president. In( that outside pressures made it hard to get to ings, he not only handled the pre know the candidates, they have only them- regents, but of the Universityi selves to blame. The regents could have also. Open meetings helpedt held additional meetings with the finalists. make a strong decision. The rej Perhaps the regents could have narrowed plaints only serve to reflect poo the list down to two candidates and invited decision. The regents must reali; them back for another round of public inter- fits and conduct future searches Teen..ptg&e trou bles lowed the regents to their goals kgrounds. tional inter- re president rked as the s of the four gents claim onnections t advantage ings. ility of the to know the veli as they ings would same way rstay at the to see that support for ity commu- ir opinions one is clear progressed. dice was not nyone could n previous hind closed y may have Jt slighted say in the ere is little oice for the open meet- ssure of the community the regents gents' com- rly on their ze the bene- in public. Welfare laws har The United States is giving minor teen- age mothers an ultimatum: Live with a legal guardian and stay in school or lose all welfare benefits. The new rules took effect Oct. 1; they affect all new welfare appli- cants. Existing recipients will become sub- ject to the new rules when their cases undergo an annual review. The new welfare guidelines constitute a negative approach, to teen-age welfare dependency - they specifically target women and they fail to provide for extenuating circumstances. The new wave of welfare legislation at the state and national level follows a long push from Michigan to stiffen teen-age wel- fare regulations. Maragrete Gravina, Wayne County Family Independence Agency spokesperson, has said that the government has implemented the new restrictions to teach teens to be independent. But this may be difficult. Recent studies of welfare recipients estimate that half of those who give birth before age 18 have been sexually abused, and that another 10 percent or more have been physically abused - often at the hands of parents. It is possible that the num- bers are larger - not all survivors report abuse. The new legislation, though it allows teens to live with "other legal guardians," makes it difficult for victims to leave abu- sive parents. Teen-agers who seek to estab- lish new parental guardians would undoubt- edly become entangled in court and govern- ment bureaucracy. Many teens will have to choose between abuse and destitution. m abused teens claims are legitimate. In the wake of the new policy, the Wayne County Family Independence Agency has reported a steady stream of frantic phone calls from young women who say they have nowhere to turn for a parental guardian. Although the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has allotted $2.8 million to FIA to house such teens, the money has yet to arrive. Therefore, housing is still unavailable for many teen-age moth- ers. Statistics from a 1995 congressional hearing show that the 70-percent poverty rate of teen-age mothers is reduced to 34 percent when they retain the assistance of a spouse or of the noncustodial father of their children. The data marks the importance of the father in improving the financial situa- tion of the teen-age mother and her child. However, the new policy does not focus enough on fathers. Instead, it focuses more on the mother, implying that most parental responsibility should fall upon the female parent. A more effective version of the law would place similar obligations upon fathers. The new legislation shows that Congress realizes that teen-age mothers without edu- cation or parental support and supervision stand very little chance of escaping poverty. Yet its blanket policy fails to accommodate the many special circumstances that sur- round these welfare cases. Though the aim of the bill - to place teen-age mothers in a situation that provides financial mobility - Evaluate quality, not gender TO THE DAILY: I happened upon your edi- torial about gender bias in student evaluations while browsing the Nov. 8 Daily Web Pages ("Tipping the scales"). While I'm sure the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching's study will prove very inter- esting, focusing on gender bias misses the point of eval- uations. An instructor should use evaluations to determine whether he/she succeeded in providing students with the instruction they needed to succeed in the class. If the instructor did not meet the needs of the student (within the scope available), then he/she should address what it will take to improve, regard- less of his/her gender. As a training and devel- opment specialist for an aca- demic medical center, I too am evaluated by students on their perceptions of my class- es. If I rate low in an area, I am expected to raise my skill level, not claim gender bias. It seems that perhaps what you are determining to be "bias" may be better addressed through better preparation of all instructors, both male and female, on the fundamentals of teaching others. HEATHER FOOTE UNIVERSITY ALUM Too many fee increase proposals To THE DAILY: Attention: Students. Do you want to pay hun- dreds of dollars more in fee increases or just $1? If you pass the Project Serve and Black Volunteer.Network fee proposal, you will be paying hundreds more. Community service is a great and neces- sary thing. No one disagrees with that. But why should we just pass a ballot increase for Project Serve and BVN? If we are going to pass ballot increases, why not support Alternative Spring Break as a separate ballot question? In that case, why not support a ballot question for groups that are students of color? These are great and neces- sary things. I am sure that Alianza and La Voz would agree. What I am getting at is that if we support one group's attempt to have a fee increase solely for themselves, then we have the simple and smart alterna- tive. Remember on Nov. 20 and 21 to vote against the increase of $1.50 for Project Serve and BVN and to vote for the $1 increase for MSA's Budget Priorities Committee. ANDY SCHOR M SA REPRESENTATIVE Hillary flirts with truth TO THE DAILY: I personally think that Hillary Clinton is a bad idea for the country. While it is true that Mrs. Clinton is very intelligent and very capable, 1 do not trust her, nor do I think that the people of the United States trust her; lest the Democrats would not have made such an effort to put her behind the scenes ("One powerful lady," 11/7/96). Putting aside the rather distasteful issue of nepotism, I think that Mrs. Clinton is a little too power-hungry for the good of the country. When she took control of the health care program I was optimistic due to her business experience and intelligence that she would be able to craft a reform program. Instead, Mrs. Clinton decided to bring a very important issue and take it out of the public spotlight with her "secret commis- sion." The resulting health- care proposal was a statist nightmare - with too much power concentrated into the hands of too few people. It was far beyond what the peo- ple of the nation wanted or expected; and it was far from good for the nation. Even the Office of Management and Budget came out with a projected figure which would have had the debt incurred by her health care plan above that of defense, and that in only 10 years. Finally, Mrs. Clinton has had her integrity put to question in several investiga- tions, many of which are still underway. I view Mrs. Clinton much as I view for- mer President Richard Nixon: A very capable, intel- ligent person, but one who is too willing to bend the rules. This is not the type of person whom I want taking a leading role in the country. JIM WHALL UNIVERSITY ALUM MSA: Don't use posters TO THE DAILY: , "But Serota said that even without the resolution, pos- dents is more important" I recognize that Dan does use about 10 percent of his poster to shed a dim light on a few of the things that he believes, but it just seems pretty ironic that he would be discussing his party's deci- sion to use limited postering while having his name plas- tered on every corner of cam- pus. How much of the pro- posed-fee increase will be fed into the Serota postering fund? Wouldn't it be better to use all that board space to help educate students about the problems that Dan plans to solve? Does it come as a surprise that voter turnout is so low for the Michigan Student Assembly elections when all anyone knows about a candidate is that they can get all the cool Diag boards? I admit what Dan has done is quite an accomplish- ment. I have never seen any- one monopolize that much advertising space before, but I think that we would all be better off if he did what he said or at least said what he did. JOSH SCOTT CHRIS LEFFERDINK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Coverage was 'finest' TO THE DAILY: I've just finished reading your Nov. 6 election issue, and the accompanying spe- cial section on Lee Bollinger, and want to congratulate the entire Daily staff. Beyond any doubt, this is one of the finest, most pro- fessional, best-looking issues ever published by the Daily or, for that matter, by any other college newspaper. I'm very proud of all of you. LEON JAROFF CO-CHAIR, BOARD FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Daily bungles ballot issue TO THE DAILY: I was upset by an error in your editorial page on Tuesday, Nov. 5 ("The big day"). Students depend on the Daily to get correct infor- mation about local elections, since they are not always in public spotlight. This was the case with the Washtenaw County proposal regarding hunting. The Daily stated that the proposal was seeking to pro- hibit hunting in Washtenaw County, when in reality, the oroosal was seeking to undergraduate AMU with me here at SAMUEL the University, GOODSTEIN although he grad- uated two years before 1. Upon gradu- ation, he went to the Wharton School of Business, or the Wharton Business School. I can't remember which. After finishing at Wharton with a specializa- tion in accounting, he realized he wng an atheist. Well, with this new realiza- tion the next logical step was rabbini- cal school. 'This may seem like the wrong place for a godless M.B.A., but to Dreyfus it made all the sense in the world. "Here at rabbinical school, I have no worries. I spend the day in study, which I love; I spend the nights in leisure, which I love; I have great friends, and we get free kosher nachos' Rest assured, fellow Jews of the world, Dreyfus has no intention of ev4 becoming a rabbi. Academia is his calling, if you ask me. But I am getting away from the point of this column. The card he sent me is the point, and a very interesting card it is. On the cover is a man sitting at his desk in a rela- tively nice office, which is in a rela- tively nice building, which is in a very mediocre city. Legal books and copies of the U.S. tax code are stacked al' around this poor man, and it is cle that he is having a devilish time trying to find some way for a wealthy client to get wealthier by contributing less to the tax system; at the same time, this young attorney is trying to bill as many hours as possible because he desperately wants to become a partner before age 45, so he can enjoy the benefits of part- nerhood for a few years before he retires to the World of Golf. I know all of this because at the bottom of the car are printed the words, "Gee, I wish could be out on the golf course!" There does appear to be a picture of this man's family in his office, but the picture is at least nine or 10 years old (you can tell by how young our protagonist looks in the picture relative to his current state). This card is clearly Dreyfus' idea of a funny joke - the card is really a pro- motional item for some golfing resort in Florida, not a birthday card. At th bottom of the card, Dreyfus scribbled in his favorite Oscar Wilde quote: "Somebody is boring me, I think it is me." The message of the card is obvi- ous: Don't let it happen to you. Turning open the card, I found another quotation: "What if everything, is an illusion and nothing exists - in that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet." Dreyfus claimed this quote as his own, but I know it's a Woody Alle line - Dreyfus has this habit of pla giarizing Woody Allen. The point is, Dreyfus and I have this ongoing debate over whether or not God exists. Trust me, you have not had a bizarre conver-. sation until you try to convince a rab- binical student that there may be a god, While in the midst of contemplating this very odd birthday card, my door. bell rang. Perhaps a friend with a birthday gift? Opening the door, I wa unbelievably shocked to find the foip lowing: four men dressed up as me. Me! Now I have seen a number of pretty good practical jokes in my life (like the time my friend Mike left a live horse in my bedroom) but this was beyond absurd. The absurdity, oh read- er, grows. Before I could ask these, four guys why they were each wearing items of clothing that I own, had their hair combed like mine (which amounts to not combed at all) an4 were standing in my doorway, they burst into song. Their selection was "Ich Grolle Nicht, which I kow js either by Schubert or Schumann, bi-1l can never remember which. If I am not mistaken, "Ich Grolle Nicht" is. German for "I bear no grudge," or, something like that. However, since I do not know who sends these guys to my door, I don't know whether tb messenger bears no grudge, or I beAU no grudge. It turns out these guys were from the Washtenaw Community College Choir, and do singing telegrams to raise a little extra cash., Question: How many times does one have four people in his apartment that. I I